Conventionally, there have been two types of electronic camera recording/playback apparatuses, one not having a function of editing and the other having the function of editing. The electronic camera recording/playback apparatus not having the function of editing must use equipment such as a personal computer or the like to edit shot data.
Hereinafter, an example of a conventional electronic camera recording/playback apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10. Initially, the structure of the conventional electronic camera recording/playback apparatus will be described. FIGS. 9 and 10 are a forward perspective view and a backward (rear) perspective view, respectively, illustrating the structure of a conventional electronic camera recording/playback apparatus 300. The conventional electronic camera recording/playback apparatus 300 is provided with a lens 301, a liquid crystal display 302, and operation buttons 303.
Next, the operation of the conventional electronic camera recording/playback apparatus 300 will be described. When the operator points the lens 301 at a subject, the subject is reflected on the liquid crystal display 302, and the operator can shoot the subject by pressing the operation button 303. In order to edit the shot data, the operator connects a personal computer to the electronic camera recording/playback apparatus 300 by a cable, starts software for editing the shot data on the personal computer, and edits the shot data on the screen of the personal computer.
On the other hand, it is not easy for the operator to perform editing with the conventional electronic camera recording/playback apparatus having the function of editing because of restrictions on its structure. Further, since the main unit of the apparatus must be compact, the number of operation buttons to be provided is limited. Therefore, it is difficult to increase the operations which are required for editing. Further, the apparatus must be provided with an operation button for switching the operation mode between the shooting mode and the editing mode. Although there has been an electronic camera recording/playback apparatus having a touch panel on a liquid crystal display to increase the number of operation buttons and thereby to improve the operability, since the operator directly touches the liquid crystal display for operation, bleeding may occur on the liquid crystal display or the liquid crystal display may be contaminated by fingerprints.